sons; they require more frequent feeding, and a larger quantity of food, as they not only change the matter of their body, but increase also.

As children grow stronger, they will digest substances of a heterogeneous and more solid nature. In general, the more simple and plain, the better are the aliments; and every food which digests is wholesome. It is, however, known, that lymphatic constitutions require nutritive and invigorating substances; that nervous temperaments suffer from stimuli, and stand in need of light and simple aliments; and that weak bowels do not bear vegetables, fruit, and paste, these aliments giving rise to worms and scrofulous diseases. Such intestines then must be strengthened by animal food, steel-water, some wine and bitters.

In cold climates animal food is necessary to man; he grows pale and languishing on vegetables. In hot countries, on the contrary, fruit and vegetables nourish sufficiently, their nature being quite different from that of plants in northern regions. This is evident, since the spices we take to assist digestion, belong to the vegetables which grow in southern climates. A cold dry air excites the appetite, while a hot and moist atmosphere weakens the digestive organs.

The alvine and cutaneous excretions are in intimate connection with nutrition. Noxious par

ticles, when they remain in the intestines, are absorbed and brought into the circulation. The abdomen being constipated, the bloodvessels are compressed, the circulation is impeded, and piles are produced. The blood is carried to the brain, and causes head-ache. Thus, the excretions must be taken into consideration and regulated. They vary in quantity and quality according to age, temperament, nutrition, weather and season. Perspiration is more considerable in youth than in old age, more in hot than in cold weather, more in irritable than in inert temperaments. Children suffer from being kept too warm. Yet too sudden and too great changes of temperature produce in them, as well as in adult persons, catarrhal affec tions, coughing, inflammation, diarrhœas, &c.

The skin ought to be kept clean, exposed to light and the air, and thus rendered less sensible to external impressions. Health is preferable to a pale white skin and a sickly constitution. With respect to clothing, the general rule is, that no part of the body ought to be pressed. Weak organs may be supported, and the whole body defended against cold, but all the movements of the body ought to be free and easy. It is a false taste to hurt the health, or to injure the vital functions. of females with a view to increase their beauty. A sedentary life is adverse to health in general, particularly to that of children. It is the cause of incalculable mischief. Children require more bodily exercise, and more sleep than adults.

During childhood, as well as in infancy, the regulation of the vegetative functions ought to be the most important point of education. A good and healthy organization is the basis of all employment and of all enjoyment. Many parents, however, are anxious to cultivate the mind at the expense of the body. They think they cannot in-. struct their offspring early enough to read and to write, whilst their bodily constitution and health are overlooked. Children are shut up, forced to sit quiet, and to breathe a confined air. This error is the greater, the more delicate the children, and the more premature their mental powers are. The bodily powers of such children are sooner exhausted, they suffer from dispepsia, headache, and a host of nervous complaints; their brain is liable to inflammation and serious effusions; and a premature death is frequently the consequence of such a violation of nature. It is indeed to be lamented, that the influence of the physical on the moral part of man is not sufficiently understood. There are parents who will pay masters very dearly, in hope of giving excellency to their children, but who will hesitate to spend the tenth part to procure them bodily health. Some by an absurd infatuation, take their own constitutions as a measure of those of their children, and because they themselves in advanced life can support confinement and intense application with little injury to health, they conclude that their young and delicate children can do the same. Such notions are

altogether erroneous,-bodily deformities, curved spines and unfitness for various occupations, and the fulfilment of future duties, frequently result from such misunderstood management of children. The advantages of a sound body are incalculable for the individuals themselves, their friends, and their posterity. Body and mind ought to be cultivated in harmony, and neither of them at the expense of the other. Health should be the basis, and instruction the ornament of early education. The development of the body will assist the manifestations of the mind, and a good mental education will contribute to bodily health. The organs of the mental operations, when they are too soon and too much exercised, suffer and become unfit for their functions. This explains the reason why young geniuses often descend at a later age into the class of common men. Indeed, experience shows, that among children of almost equal dispositions, those who are brought up without particular care, and begin to read and to write, when their bodily constitution has acquired some solidity, soon overtake those who are dragged early to their spellingbooks at the detriment of their bodily frame. No school education, strictly speaking, ought to begin before seven years of age. We shall, however, see in the following chapter, on the laws of exercise, that many ideas and notions may be communicated to children by other means than books, or by keeping them quiet on benches. When education shall become practical and applicable to

the future destination of individuals, children will be less plagued with nothings, but they will be made answerable not only for their natural gifts of intellect, but also for the just employment of their moral powers and the preservation and cultivation of their bodily constitution, since vigor in it is indispensable to enjoyment and usefulness. They will be made acquainted with the natural laws of nutrition and all vital functions, and with their influence on health.

The import of the laws of the vegetative functions is so great, that those who direct mankind, ought to be permitted to regulate them in many respects. The Mosaic law may serve as a fine specimen. All ancient legislators paid great attention to these laws, as well as to those of hereditary descent. This knowledge will be of greater use than to forbid eating meat on certain days. Teachers ought to know, that nothing is unclean or an abomination in itself, but becomes so by being ill used. Man must eat and drink to live, but he ought to avoid all unwholesome food, and what ever disturbs his health.

The submission of man to the laws of the vegetative functions is necessary during his whole life, but particularly from birth to the age of complete development, since the time of growth is preparatory for the rest of life.